Speech As Metaphor of Human Becoming According to St. Augustine of Hippo
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Speech as Metaphor of Human Becoming According to St. Augustine of Hippo by Yana Filipenko Institute for Christian Studies, 2000 Content Explanatory Notes.................................................................................................................v Latin-English Equivalent...................................................................................................vi Introduction..........................................................................................................................vii I. Ontological Relation of Being and Becoming when Mapped on to the Biblical Creator/Creation Distinction............................................................................................. 1 1.1. Philo sophico-Historical Setting of Augustine’s Doctrine of Being and Becoming..............................................................................................................................1 Parmenides on Being.....................................................................................................2 Plato’s Dualism.............................................................................................................. 2 Plotinus and the One......................................................................................................3 Augustine’s Use of the Tradition................................................................................. 5 1.2. God as Being (esse) and Creator According to St. Augustine. Creation in the Order o f Being....................................................................................................................5 God as Supreme Being...................................................................................................5 God as Trinity. Substantive and Relative Use of Trinitarian Attributes.................6 Being of the Creation. Truth as Measure of Existence. Substantive and Relative Use of “Truth”.................................................................................................................7 Similitude and Likeness as Measure of Creaturely Being..................................... 10 Image/Likeness Character of Creaturely Existence................................................ 11 The Goodness of the Creation as a Possibility of Return. Nature/Grace Distinction When Applied to St. Augustine’s Hierarchy of Being....................... 12 Augustine’s Reconciliation of the Creator/Creation Metaphysical Difference. The Notion of Becoming............................................................................................14 Hierarchy of Being. Opposition as a Principle of Augustine’s Hierarchy of Being .........................................................................................................................................16 Augustine’s Appropriation of the Plotinian Doctrine of the One as a Principle of the Inferential Character Inherent in Corporeal Reality..........................................17 Order and its Role in the Hierarchy of Being. Moral Order as an Underlying Principle of the Order of Being and Knowing......................................................... 18 Reference as a Principle of Order. Things as S igna of Higher Reality............... 19 Rational Order as Order of Knowing........................................................................ 20 1.3. Being Creature or Becoming (exist* re) in the Order of Knowing According to St. Augustine..................................................................................................................... 20 Human Being as an Image of God and a Rational Soul. Human Being Created to the Image of the Trinity.............................................................................................. 20 Mens as Image of God Proper.....................................................................................21 Trinitarian Images in M ens.........................................................................................22 Knowledge of God in the Prelapsarian Condition of M ens................................... 22 Mediation of Truth Through Senses and Signs of Corporeal Reality...................22 Augustine’s Negative Epistemology. The Fall of Complete Human Being by Will. Return to God Through Wilful Redirection of Mens. Definition of a Happy Life................................................................................................................................. 23 Knowing as a Mode of Creaturely Being. Epistemic Acts as Creative Acts of Humans..........................................................................................................................24 Knowledge in an Enigma—the Postlapsarian Condition of Mens. Types of Knowledge: Scientia— Knowledge of Things Created; Sapientia— Redeemed Knowledge of God as Beatific Vision...................................................................... 25 Sense-Perception.......................................................................................................... 26 Incongruity Between Augustine’s and Neoplatonic Theories of Representation 28 Self-Knowledge as Means to the Knowledge of God............................................. 29 Sententia-—Internal Sense and Self-Recollection....................................................30 Truth as the Key Concept in Augustine’s Epistemology of Becoming. Ascent or Assent?—Augustine’s Doctrine of Return...............................................................32 The Notion of Truth as Second Person of the Trinity............................................. 33 Augustine’s Doctrine of Revelation and Illumination. Proximity and Difference with the Neoplatonic Theory of Illumination.......................................................... 34 Vision and Speech as Landmarks of True Understanding......................................36 Illumination and Becoming......................................................................................... 36 Recollection and Return According to St. Augustine............................................. 39 II. Augustine’s Sign-Theory as Linguistic Theory of Meaning Preserved and Actualized through Language.......................................................................................... 42 II. 1. Language as a Gift of God, and His Natural Sign.............................................. 42 Liberal Arts...................................................................................................................43 Three Senses of “Word” According to St. Augustine............................................. 45 Use/Enjoyment; and Means/End Distinctions......................................................... 46 II.2. Sign-Theory Proper..................................................................................................48 Signum/Res Distinction................................................................................................48 Types of Signs...............................................................................................................49 Things and Types of Things.......................................................................................52 II. 3. Nature of the Relationship Between: a Sign and a Thing; and Between a Sign and a Speaker (the Process of Cognition).................................................................... 54 Origin of Meaning........................................................................................................ 54 Problem of Learning....................................................................................................55 Sign/Thing Relationship. Allegorical and Ontological Relationships According to St. Augustine.............................................................................................................56 Sign/Speaker Relationship.......................................................................................... 57 II.4. Augustine’s Use ofVerbum.....................................................................................59 Verbum Mentis..............................................................................................................60 III. Theory of Interpretation as Theory of Reference................................................65 III..1. Reference as Basic Relationship in the Order of Being and Knowing........... 65 Linguistic Meaning of Signs and Ontological Meaning of Things....................... 68 Transformational Power of Allegories...................................................................... 68 Allegory According to St. Augustine.........................................................................69 IV 111.2. Signification in the Creation by Obscuring the Truth. Allegorical Relation Between Things as Signs—Vestiges of the Creator, and the Truth they Reveal to Human Understanding.....................................................................................................70 Types of Allegory........................................................................................................ 70 111.3. Rule o f Faith........................................................................................................... 72 Obscurity as Means of True Interpretation...............................................................72 Objectivity of Truth.....................................................................................................73 Intention of the Writer and Spiritual Understanding. Interpretation